The world blurred.
Selene drifted between consciousness and darkness, her body weightless, her mind caught in the undertow of some ancient current.The last thing she remembered was blood... and eyes.
Eyes that should not exist — too bright, too deep, too terrible.
A soft crackling sound reached her ears — not threatening, almost soothing. She smelled smoke, but not of fire; something cooler, more ancient, like burning mist and crushed violets.
Her eyelids fluttered open.
The ceiling above her was not sky but black stone — polished so smoothly it reflected the faintest glimmer of her face back at her, pale and blood-streaked.She sat up slowly, every muscle trembling.
She was lying on a bed — no, a platform of dark crystal draped in sheets finer than any silk she had ever touched. Strange glyphs pulsed faintly on the walls, breathing with a life of their own.
She was not alone.
He stood at the edge of the room — no, ruled it — like a god carved from the deepest, most unforgiving night.
The man who had saved her — or perhaps, the creature that had claimed her.
His presence struck her harder than any sword, more suffocating than any chain. Moonlight — or something darker — caught the fall of his obsidian hair, cascading like liquid shadow down his back. His skin was pale as sorrow, unmarred, a canvas too flawless to be real.
And his eyes...
Silver fractured by shadows, deep and endless — devouring.
Selene's breath caught painfully in her chest.
No mortal man looked like that. No mortal being should.
He regarded her with an unreadable expression, as if she were little more than a puzzle — something fragile he could crush or keep, depending on his whim.
"You are awake," he said, voice low, dangerous, devastatingly beautiful.
Selene's fingers twisted into the sheets, her mouth dry.
"Where... am I?" she managed to whisper.
The man tilted his head slightly, like a predator studying unfamiliar prey.
"Mine," he said simply.
The word fell between them like a blade.
Selene's pulse thundered in her ears. Fear, confusion — and something darker, something thrilling — raced through her blood.
"I–I didn't mean to disturb you," she stammered. "I was running... they were chasing me—"
A flicker of something — disdain? amusement? — crossed his inhumanly perfect face.
"And so you thought to offer yourself to the altar," he murmured. "A lamb stumbling to a forsaken throne."
He stepped closer.
Selene instinctively scrambled backward on the bed — but it was no use. Even across the space, his presence crushed against her skin, an invisible weight, a silent command.
"I don't even know what you are," she whispered, trembling.
His smile was slow, cruel, mesmerizing.
"Then pray you never find out."
The very air seemed to darken around him — as if the world itself bent toward his existence, trembling.
Selene forced herself to meet his gaze, even as her heart screamed at her to flee.
"You saved me," she said. "Why?"
Silence.
The man moved — and the world shifted.
In less than a blink, he was in front of her — towering over her, one hand curling beneath her chin with a gentleness so deceptive it made her shiver.
Up close, he was unbearable.
His beauty was overwhelming, ruinous — a living sin, an impossible temptation born from the forgotten dreams of gods and monsters.
Selene could barely breathe.
"I don't know," he said, almost to himself, his voice raw silk and razors. "I should have let you die."
The admission was not cruel.
It was worse — it was honest.
And somewhere deep inside, Selene knew:This was no ordinary meeting.This was the kind of encounter that would tear kingdoms apart... and reshape the very fabric of existence.
Before she could answer — before she could even think — the great doors behind him slammed open.
An explosion of cold wind and dark whispers flooded the chamber.
Three figures in black armor stormed in — not men, not quite beasts — their weapons gleaming with unnatural light, their eyes burning with hunger.
Assassins.
Selene barely had time to scream before they lunged.
But he didn't move like a man.
He moved like the end of all things.